Exposing Humanities Data for Reuse and Linking RED, linked data and the semantic web Mathieu d’Aquin Knowledge Media Institute, the Open University LUCERO project, http://data.open.ac.uk
Dec 13, 2014
Exposing Humanities Data for Reuse and Linking
RED, linked data and the semantic web
Mathieu d’Aquin
Knowledge Media Institute, the Open University
LUCERO project, http://data.open.ac.uk
Motivation… • From my rather ignorant perspective, humanities
research = collecting data and using it for research and teaching
• RED is obviously a perfect example of this• Challenges:
– How do we expose this data in such way that it makes all the potential uses of it feasible
– How do we expose this data so that it can connect to other collections, open information resources, etc.
– How do we benefit from other information resources to enrich this data, derive new research questions, connect it to aspects not originally thought about…
Linked Data (tada!!)
• As set of principles and technologies for a Web of Data– Putting the “raw” data online in a
standard representation (RDF)– Make the data Web addressable
(URIs)– Link with to other Data
Linked Data
Linked Data at the OU?
ORO
Archive of Course Material
Library’sCatalogueOf Digital Content
OpenLearnContent
A/V MaterialPodcastsiTunesU
Data from Research Outputs
BBC
DBPedia
DBLP
RAE
geonames
data.gov.uk
data.open.ac.uk
Example Application
Linked data… and humanities
• Still early stage, but– Can there be a Web of Data for
humanities?– What are the implications? How can be
we benefit? – Is this going to happen naturally, or
should we make a particular effort
• RED: an early example exploring the potential of linked data for humanities research
Experience
Person
Document
EventLocation
City Countrydate: Date
subClassOf
subClassOf
locatedIn
readerInvolved
textInvolved givesBackgroundTo
title: Stringdescription: Stringpublished: Date
creator/editor
providesExcerptFor
occupation
religion
originCountry
gender
LinkedEvent Ontology
CITO Citation Ontology
Dublin Core
FOAF
DBPedia
Conclusion• The benefits of exposing your research data as
linked data is undeniable: allow for reuse and linking!– Still, requires efforts
• The potential of linking to other data is very promising– Connect things that don’t need to aggregated any
more. They are in the same data space: the Web…– With which come all the issues around provenance,
quality, trust, etc.
• This represents a serious conceptual shift in the way we manage and use academic/research/educational data